A Ride Home
by Rivenchu
Summary: Eh, let's see... this isn't a really summary friendly fic. 0.o But it's a X/F, and *winces* Why won't it let me put a decent summary about this?! *sulks* Guess you'll just have to read to find out... *brightens* ^-^ A review would be nice if you do...
1. A Mazoku Back We Go!

Author Notes: I don't own Slayers… *sniffles* (nor do I own MIZU-KAGAMI) But this plot is mine! ^0^ Mwuahahahahaha!!! It's mine! I shall keep it forever and ever…

~ ~ ~ (*singing MIZU-KAGAMI as she types*) ~ ~ ~

Filia ran as fast as she could, this just really wasn't her day. They didn't have something she wanted at the market, and what other things she did get were over priced, and to top it all off she was being attacked by a mazoku. Not just any mazoku, but a rather strong one. Lucky her.

"Eeep!" Filia squeaked as what must have been the fifth red and pink blast missed her by a few inches to her left, just missing her grocery bag.

"Stand still you scallywag dragon!" The vaguely humanoid pink blob shouted. (^.^ Maybe he has issues about being pink… it's not really a 'mazoku-ly color is it?)

"Scallywag?!" Filia screeched to a halt and whirled around. "Who are you calling a scallywag you pink putty!"

"Pink putty?! I'll show you overblown dragon!"

"At least it doesn't look like I got stepped on!"

Despite looking like it had been stepped on, thrown in a cave and left to grow fuzzy stuff, the pink mazoku grew a sizable pink and red aura. The aura abruptly died out as soon as it looked like it about to fire. Then again maybe the black pointy thing that suddenly poked out of it in a painful looking way helped interrupt the power charge.

Filia let go of the shield she was about to set up and stared surprised at the sudden turn of events.

 The black pointy thing vanished leaving the blob to collapse. It gasped and then flared with stored power, sending out its earlier energy build up for its final attack. It disintegrated after it sent out the massive blast speeding towards the surprised Filia who couldn't put a shield up in time.

Filia gasped as the attack slammed into her sending her flying backwards. She hit something hard. The next thing Filia knew she felt like she was had been trampled and slumped against something behind her she couldn't see. "Must've blacked out…" she though groggily.

"This certainly isn't a good place to take a nap." A slightly echo-y voice commented.

Filia looked up a little to see a pair of boots phase in. 'Oh Cephied, not him!'

"But I expect a dragon would find it comfortable."  

Filia reached for her mace and quickly stood up. "Now lis-" Her mood changed when she, suddenly got extremely lightheaded as she saw spots dance in front of her eyes. "-ten here…" Not to mention it really really hurt to stand or just move for that matter, especially her back and left leg. So Filia decided to sit back down... and sit down quickly too…

Xellos sweat-dropped slightly using one finger to scratch his cheek as he looked down at the swirly-eyed dragon. She must have been hit harder than he thought. He looked back up at the tree she crashed against, or rather the partial stump with a lot of splinters. Only one thing to do…

 Filia shook her head getting rid of the dizziness. She looked up in time to see Xellos picking up her grocery bag and dropping it in his side bag. "Those are mine." She growled as she sat up slowly.

"I never said they were mine." Xellos picked up Filia's mace.

"Give that back!" Filia started to scoot over wincing all the way.

Rolling his eyes, though no one could see, Xellos leaned down and offered Filia back her dangerous blunt yet pointy hard metallic teddy bear.

Filia snatched it back holding it far away as she could. Cuddling her mace she cooed, "Did that big bad namagomi touch you? Did the namagomi mazoku defile you?"

"Filia…" Xellos's eyebrows went up when he suddenly found a mace under his nose. "…eh?"

"Leave me alone!" Filia glared up at the slightly exasperated mazoku.

"And then what?"

"I'm going to go home." 

"How?"

"…" Filia blinked and lowered her mace. "Ah…."

"Thought so." Came a slightly smug reply.

"But I'll get there with out the help of you." Filia put her mace away. "And I'll get my groceries later!" She slowly started to drag herself back to the path.

 "Stubborn dragon…" Xellos muttered watching Filia slowly head back to the road.

Filia stopped, closed her eyes and leaned against a rock to catch her breath. She had traveled what, 10 feet? It was going to take forever to get home if she could only go short distances; it normally took 2 or more hours walking at her normal speed under normal conditions.

She yelped when something grabbed her under the knees, and pulled up lifting her off the ground. Filia instinctively reached out in front of her and grabbed whatever she could to keep from falling, not noticing her tail had popped out.

"Filia, do you have to twist and pull back so much?" came a plaintive whine.

Filia cracked open one eye to see Xellos had picked her up piggyback style, and she had grabbed his hair and was yanking back pretty hard so she couldn't fall back. "Hentai!" She reached down with one hand to fetch her mace, and then whacked him upside the head careful to not hit her other hand.

"Itai… Filia, it isn't polite to do that nor is smart to do that to the person carrying you." Xellos replied leaning forward slightly as he started to walk down the road. The mace hadn't hurt much, though to be conscious after a blast like that took some good endurance. "Shouldn't you save your energy for healing?"

'He does have a point…' Filia though grudgingly putting her mace back and sulked. She leaned as far as away as she could while staying balanced with as minimal contact with Xellos as possible.

And 15 minutes later a still irritated Filia mentally growled. It was hard to stay in her position; especially since she could take a nap… being extremely bored wasn't helping her stay awake either. Nor did she want to let her guard down while she was alone with the demon was carrying her.

"Why Filia, I do believe your tail has a mind of it's own." Xellos looked back at Filia who blinked. "Unless that is your doing?" Xellos's grin became wider as Filia looked down.

Filia's eyes became dinner plates and she flushed red. She mentally growled at her dragon instincts, or more particularly using a prehensile tail that acts as stabilizer when in a precarious position. It just so happened the closet thing for it to wrap around was…

Filia maintaining an air of dignity (head held high, nose up) ruined only by her embarrassed pink splash on her face, uncoiled her tail from Xellos's leg and curled back up into her dress.

Xellos chuckled shaking his head a little as he looked back to the road. "You really should calm down Filia." He could take a pretty good guess how tense she was, considering her emotions were a good deal of nervousness, a lot of anger, some uncertainty, and even a bit of fear she was giving off.

Filia gave a small snort, "You expect me to calm down next to someone who tried to kill me? Even now I bet this is some part of your plot!"

"Kill you?" Xellos raised both his eyebrows, though Filia couldn't see. "If I had wanted to kill you, I could have done so already."

"You have a more devious plan in mind! I just know it!" replied glaring at the back of the mazoku's head.

"Does everything I do have to have a plan behind it?" Xellos's voice lost its normal lilt. 

"You sent that mazoku after me! If it hadn't killed itself with the pointy thing, which was pitiful by the way, it should have been more convincing if it did something else. Anything else would have been better than that." Filia ended thoughtfully.

"Aw, Filia that's mean." Xellos pouted. "And no I didn't send the mazoku after you."

"And so you just conveniently showed up then?" Filia asked dubiously asked.

"Yup!" Xellos returned to his usual expression.

"What kind of spell was that then? If you wanted to make a better impression you should have done something better than that." Filia poked the back of Xellos's head.

"…" 

"I mean really… a black cone or something?"

"…" Filia didn't notice the depression lines Xellos suddenly acquired.

"Don't you think it was pathetic looking?"

"…if you really believe I'm up to something, I could give into your expectations." Xellos stopped walking and looked back at Filia with a cold look (open eyes). "I could gruesomely torture you and then leave you here to slowly perish. I'm sure I can think of better given enough time, after all I have to live up to what you expect of mazoku after all, don't I?"

"No." Filia peeped wilting a bit under the mazoku's glare. 

"Good." Xellos turned around and continued walking with his normal expression.

Filia sighed and looked down trying to ignore the fact she was still being carried by a mazoku that could be extremely frightening when he wanted to be.

She heard Xellos grumble something.

"What was that?" Filia peeked back up still a bit timid.

"Nothing that would be of interest to such a _high_ and _mighty_ dragon such as yourself Filia-_chan_."

"What was it anyway?" Filia slightly growled back to her previous demeanor.

Xellos debated whether to tell or not, he decided that there was no harm in telling her. "That you dragons are to rigid and rely too much on reputations and stereotypes."

"We do not." Filia huffed.

"Ever hear of Rezo the Red Priest?"

"He was kind, benevolent, and traveled performing great healing feats."

Xellos chuckled, "And he was carrying a part of Lord Ruby Eye."

"What?!" Filia yelled.

"Thank you Filia for that fine conclusion, my ears will be ringing until next Tuesday…" Xellos winced. 

"Someone like that had Shabranigdo in them?" Filia trailed off.

"Dragons have reputation of good will and all that other stuff, right?"

Filia hung her head, "I know what you're getting at…" She looked back up, "But that still doesn't change the fact you're the most annoying, egotistical, smart aleck I know mazoku or not."

Xellos gave a wry smile, "But how well do you know me? Other than the times you were chasing, insulting or ignoring me?"

"Well there was-" she paused, "wait then there was that time-" another pause, "and over by the…" Filia gave up and trailed off. "That doesn't change what I know about you now though."

"Ah, I see. One way or another then Filia?" Xellos then mentally added, 'Condemned either way whether I do nothing or not.'

"Huh?" Filia answered blinking.

 "So how have you been?" Xellos cheerfully changed subjects.

Still thinking about the earlier talk Filia blinked and automatically answered, "I'm fine."

"You don't get bored? Surely you-" Xellos abruptly stopped talking. 

"What?" Filia blinked a bit perplexed at the mazoku.

"Either your tail really has a mind of it's own or your trying to tell me something."

Filia looked down to see that once again her tail had wrapped itself around Xellos's leg, only a bit higher this time…

Filia went completely red this time. "It wasn't me…" This time she curled it around her leg to prevent any further incidents.

"As I was saying… what are you doing to make you so tired?" Xellos began to focus a bit more where he was stepping; the path was getting narrower and rockier.

"Well… its…" Filia looked down to path so her bangs covered her embarrassment. 

"It's…?" Xellos prompted.

"That time of the year."

Xellos's eyebrow's shot upwards under his bangs. "Really?" He laughed.

Filia whapped upside the back of his head, "It's not funny."

When she didn't receive a reply she whined, "Can't you fly there or teleport? We're only a two thirds there…."

"What's wrong with walking?"

"…" Filia wearily blinked, why didn't she notice how tired she was until just a second ago? She just felt sleeping yet stifled an errant yawn. Making up her mind to berate and punish herself later for what she was about to do. 

~*~*~ (Oya oya… 0.o long) ~*~*~

Author's Notes: Yeck, 0.o busy… found this and decided to post it. ^-^ I'm am working on my other ficcies… but I've been so busy lately. u.u *sulks* Evil classes I tell you… but… ^-^ any encouragement will help my resolve to write! 0.o Oya another fic for me to work on… *resolves to work on 'Verin' and 'C&C' fic* And as for this fic being updated… 0.o I'll try but can't guarantee a fast update.


	2. Sleep Dragons, Stomach Aches, And The Re...

Author Notes: n.n Yay update! I am so on a writing spree! …o.0 Am trying to update lots of my fics!

~ ~ ~ (*listens to a music box melody song*) ~ ~ ~

Filia blinked again. She was very very very _very_ tired… and that was putting it nicely. She wasn't paying attention to the amicable chatter from Xellos… she was more concerned with… not falling asleep on the namagomi mazoku! She wouldn't fall asleep or touch the evil demon more than necessary… even if it was tempting to just lay her head down right on his shoulder and go to sleep… 

No she wouldn't do that! Not in a million bagillion years…

"-seems like the weather will hold out for awhile. Those storm clouds do look close; we should reach your home before then Fi-" Xellos blinked when he felt something shift onto his shoulder. Looking over at Filia he saw she had indeed given into her earlier thoughts and was almost asleep from what he could sense. 

"…mmmzzzv…" Filia grumbled. "Feather pillow needs fluffing." She thwapped or rather fluffled her pillow on the back and shoulder (earning a few odd looking winces for Xellos) a few times before settling back down.

"Filia…" Xellos whined, "don't do that." It's not like he would actually say out loud why that bothered him so much. 

"………zzzzzz………" Filia started to drool a little. 

"…" Xellos shrugged and trudged on… and on… and on… and on… and on… and on… and on… and on until he finally got extremely bored from the silence. Giving up on walking, he lifted up from the ground and flew slowly making sure Filia didn't fall off, it was much faster than walking. And so he flew and flew and flew… and flew… and flew…  and flew… and reached Filia's house just as the clouds were just getting really menacing.

Landing on the doorstep he opened the door by just looking at it. (ya magic!)  The violet haired mazoku looked around and dropped Filia on a couch. Dusting his hands off he tsked at the slumbering dragon, ""You _are_ a heavy dragon." 

He looked about the room, noticing as always her pottery and book collections. Turning on heel he walked out of the room. Now if he could only find some tealeaves in the kitchen… 

Er, that was flour… (Eck, cough cough… oh dear it was messy and spread fast)

And that was sugar… (That tasted good… but it did blend in with the flour quite well)

And, bleck, salt and pepper! (Followed by a sneeze, and a small pepper cloud)

And now maple syrup…? (Sticky sticky, there was an odd paste on the floor and counter) 

Xellos scowled… why did kitchens have to be so complicated! Not only was the kitchen a mess, but what did he look like now? Waving off the still present pepper cloud he moved onto cupboard number 5 then…

Filia yawned, rolled to the side a little… and fell right off the couch. "Ow!" she whimpered wincing. That was going to leave a mark next morning. 

Getting to her feet a bit unsteadily she heard a muffled thump followed by a crash from the kitchen. She hobbled over to the next room and went wide-eyed at the sight of her kitchen. It was… chaos…

"How much _flour_ does she keep in here?" Xellos growled and pulled a pot off of his head. The second batch of flour was now like a second skin, courtesy of the earlier maple syrup for acting like a tar. Instead of being tarred and feathered, he was maple syruped and floured.

'I will not laugh at this… I have self-control…. I will not laugh at this… I have self control…' Filia mentally chanted this mantra telling herself it would work. 

Xellos heard a thump and looked over to the doorway to see a dragon doubled over the counter and looking red in the face.

Burst, or stay quiet…? Filia made her choice. "Ahahahaha!" Filia chortled failing miserably to hide her mirth.

The mazoku frowned and crossed his arms. She couldn't laugh at him like that.

The dragon continued to laugh and gave up all pretenses of trying to hide it.

Xellos glared. Se was laughing at him like that.

Filia coughed and managed to finally stop laughing. "Ahem," she cleared her throat "now what in Cephieed's name are you doing to my kitchen and making a royal mess?" 

The violet haired mazoku closed the cupboard lest another pot or pan decided to attack him. "I was just looking for-" And because he closed it a jar from above fell off it, landed on his head, and then clattered to the ground rolling a small distance away.

"If that jar had broken…" Filia looked back up, "it's the last of the tea I have in the house."

"…" Xellos rubbed his now doubly sore head glaring at the jar. "Looking for the tealeaves.

Filia sniggered once more. Just like a mazoku to turn the simplest of tasks into complicated and a state utter pandemonium.

~ ~ ~ (n.n; Ehehehe… time hop! … -.-; And yes somewhat standard plotline…) ~ ~ ~

Xellos groaned and buried further into his hiding spot, under the blankets on his bed. Oh Juu-ou sama was going to be very very very angry with him… Not only had he disobeyed, but something was wrong. Very wrong. The core of he being felt like it was twisting and it _hurt_. Physically this manifested it self as a sharp stomach pain. After a particularly nasty one, he curled up more.

~_Xellos…_~

And there she was, she was summoning him. Xellos stuck his head out from under the blankets.

~_Xellos!_~

Oh, she sounded somewhat calm… that was bad… very bad. The violet haired mazoku rolled out from his bed and teleported outside the main chambers. He knocked.

"Enter."

Xellos pushed the door open and peeked in. Zelas looked as she always did. If there was one thing he knew, a angry calm Zelas was bad… he would rather prefer she threw a fit. 

"I said enter." Zelas repeated crossly. 

Xellos obeyed, walking inside and bowing. 

"What have I told you?" 

"That-" Xellos winced slightly and cut himself off, doing his best to stand up straight and ignore the increasingly worsening twisting sensations.

Zelas frowned slightly. She had an idea of what was wrong… 

"To avoid-" Xellos felt something twist and snap violently inside of him again. This time having a final sense of… change to it. 

Zelas leaned forward, also sensing this and was not surprised when her minion teetered a little and collapsed. She would deal with him later she thought as she hefted her servant up and started trekking back to his room.

~ ~ ~ (… *hums a bit* ) ~ ~ ~

Later that day Xellos fuzzily wondered how he had gotten back to his room. Still a bit muddled mentally, he sat up. First thing he noticed was that he wasn't wearing his cloak, the second thing he noticed was something at the end of the bed… it was a FUZZY thing! Xellos scrambled out of bed, or hoped to rather as he crashed on the floor half in and half out of his bed. 

The fuzzy thing was now hovering over him looking spiky! The startled mazoku shuffled away from the bed, and watched the fuzzy thing follow.

…wait just a minute… Xellos looked at the furry thing closer. It was attached to that odd colored skinny thing… Xellos traced the odd thing that ran up too… 

Oh L-sama… he had a _friggin'_ tail! The shocked mazoku watched his tail wave back and forth slightly, complete with a furry tip. He didn't notice the door open.

"I did tell you not to spend too long around dragons." 

"But – how – it?!" Xellos pointed at the offending tail, and dropped his normally cool attitude in light of this circumstance. Once more, the furry tip poofed and went spiky.

"Do you need to ask?" Zelas said giving a pointed look.

"…" Xellos grabbed a nearby blanket and wrapped himself in it.

"I will not repeat what I said earlier, however if you still fell the need to visit the ryuzoku from now on… You now have a better idea of the consequences." She left the room, wolf tail waving behind her.

After she had left Xellos once more stared at the tail that was and wasn't his and noticed what colors it was. Of course the furry tip matched his hair, bit other than that why a pinkish-purple? 

~ ~ ~ (And now… hallo Filia!) ~ ~ ~

Filia had recovered quite nicely after a few days. She was still taking it easy. She had mended her bow and polished her mace. Something she had been meaning to do in a while. They were very important to her…

But right now she was reading a book, a very big book. She knew there were Gold Dragons, Lake Dragons, and Ancient Dragons… but she wondered if there were other kinds… Other kinds that were extinct by natural causes or, perhaps even they had met the same fate as the Ancients… she hoped not. Filia patted the Ancient dragon egg sitting next to her. 

Mountain Dragons, Sea Dragons, Rainbow Dragons, Shadow Dragons, Forest Dragons, Wind Dragons… there were so many! Filia made a note read the chapter on each and every one of them.

~ ~ ~ (n.n Okay! Can anyone imagine what would happen next?) ~ ~ ~

Author Notes: Yay chapter done! Reviews are welcome… hmmmm… next chapter will be… a bit nostalgic for Filia… ^-^ What do I mean? I can't say yet. *runs off to write more*


	3. No Sulking Allowed XelXel

Author Notes: o.0 And again with the writing! ^-^ Yaaaaaaaaay! Though it hops around a bit… -.-; Tell me if it hops around too much, and I'll fix it! I do not own Slayers… I may wish I owned it, but I don't. *sulks* Nor do I won the italic words in the ~ ~ ~ ( ) ~ ~ ~ …

~ ~ ~ (_Nagarete yuku, mizu ni utsuru, omoide no danpen_…) ~ ~ ~

Filia had been reading for quite a while. She was halfway done with what she vowed to read earlier.

"…and the Shadow race died out from natural causes… I hope it was natural." She muttered. She was finding this chapter particularly interesting. It is said that the Shadow Ryu race was the first to die out, and that much wasn't know about them. What she did read was very interesting though she absently thought.

"…a colorful Shadow dragon race. If it is supposed to be a shadow shouldn't be various shades of gray?" said a voice from over her shoulder. 

Filia jumped with enough force to knock the couch back.

"So jumpy Filia." Xellos said stepping back out of harm's way.

"I wouldn't talk if I were you. I happen to be able to step in a kitchen and come out clean." Filia glared up from the ground.

"I happen to be able to keep a level voice." Xellos rocked on his heels and grinned.

"…" Filia continued to glare.

"…shouldn't you do something about that?" Xellos pointed to Filia's dress, which hadn't been pushed back up when she fell backwards.

"Eep!" Filia squeaked turning tomato red while making sure she was decent again. When she had gotten to her feet and smoothed out her dress she made sure to send an extra nasty glare to the namagomi mazoku in front of her. Not being able to think of a retort beyond, "You, you… you!!!" she drew forth her metal spiky oval ball and attacked.

The next thing the golden-haired dragon knew she had crashed into the wall mace-sama-less.

"Filia, is this how you greet all your guests?" Xellos asked slyly hefting the mace.

"You… give it back!" Filia charged again, and tripped over the couch when Xellos teleported out.

"So possessive Filia." The violet haired mazoku chided. "Maybe I should hold onto this until you learn some manners."

"Grrrrrrr…" Filia turned around and blinked, the mazoku was nowhere in sight.

_~ ~ ~ (Anna omoi, kurikaesanai, sou kokoro ni chikau…) ~ ~ ~_

Xellos dropped the mace on a shelf. It had worked, he felt a little better now. Zelas had explained what might have been wrong, why he had been a bit more… _susceptible_ to this for a lack of a better word. Maybe he would even tell if… nah. Best not.

The damage had already been done Xellos thought while sitting down in a chair and looking at the… his tail. 

Since most mazoku had a basic, or rather true form on the astral plane, and second inherent physical form as well. It didn't take any energy to hold one's true form, and little was needed to hold the secondary form. To choose a different form would be more energy draining. True forms could not be changed, secondary forms could, but with great difficulty and effort. {n.n Er, just a theory of mine.}

Xellos glared at the tail, now his secondary form had another problem with it. At least no one noticed it easily. If he concentrated, he could keep it still, and therefore unnoticeable as possible.

He wouldn't have gone back to Filia, but he had been sulking around Wolf Pack for the few days after he had blacked out and… acquired his new _accessory_. Zelas had gotten fed up with her minion and thrown him off the island for a few hours. He had used the visit as a test of sorts to test his control. 

Hmmm… speaking about control he wondered if maybe-

"I thought I said no more brooding, you've done quite enough of that." A voice half growled, half purred. 

The violet haired mazoku sweat-dropped at the fact he hadn't noticed Juu-ou had come up behind him. "I am?"

"Either go out and visit that dragon of yours or I invite Deep Sea Dolphin over." Zelas put on a higher pitched voice, "Dolphin wants to visit Meanie Zelas and Xellie-chan!" She chuckled as her minion paled at the thought. "So, which will it be then?"

"I'm going." Xellos slinked off and picked up the mace from where he had left it earlier. Well, it _was_ an order…

"That's a good Xel-Xel." The gold-silver haired mazoku grinned when her minion twitched from the nickname.
    
    ~ ~ ~ (_Nagarete yuku, mizu ni utsuru,kanashimi ga aru kara_,) ~ ~ ~

'It was gone… it was gone…' Filia was sitting in the middle of the room staring at absolutely nothing in a dazed manner. 'It was… _gone_."

'It was _GONE_!' She shakily picked up Valgaav's egg from the nearby table. 'It was gone…'

'It was gone…' That was all Filia could think about. {*cough cough* Er, yah, obviously…}

'It was gone, it was gone, it was… waving right in front of her face!' Filia gasped and reached out with it, accidentally dropping her charge in her haste. She clutched her mace, {spiky teddy bear. n.n And there is a reason why it is called that.} relieved, 'It was back…'

"You care about that mace more than this egg?" 

Filia blinked and glanced down at her lap. Valgaav's egg wasn't there. Why… how dare he! How dare a namagomi mazoku touch a dragon egg!

"Do you use it as a nightlight sometimes?" Xellos asked curiously moving the glowing green egg from hand to hand. He never had a change to see a dragon egg before, much less hold one.

Filia used every trick she knew not to charge, if she did there was a good chance that something could happen to the egg. Though dragon eggs had a hard shell, it was best not to tempt fate. 

That was why the gold dragon whipped out her tablecloth and put away her mace at the same move, pulled out her tea set and poured. "Ah, this tea is lovely." She murmured closing her eyes, her tail long since wagging about behind her.

"Hmmm… reading up on your responsibility?" the violet haired mazoku commented noticing several books strewn about. The big one next to the overturned table looked good.

Filia was sighing about her tea again, reminding herself to go to town and get more. She opened her eyes, and saw her charge's egg sitting on the teacup... which had hot tea in it! "Yaaaaaaaaaeeeeack!" She screeched lifting the egg off and blowing on it, trying to cool it down.

She sighed in relief minutes later as she held to cooled down egg. Ancients lived in cold climates, so the temperature Valgaav's egg needed to be was much lower than a golden dragon egg. Since she lived in a warmer climate, the average weather was perfect for its incubation.  

She turned around ready to tell off the inconsiderate mazoku, but found herself staring instead at an… orchid colored tail waving about slightly. "…" 

Xellos was sitting with his back towards Filia a small distance away reading the book she had been reading earlier. 'I should borrow this book, perhaps make a copy. I do not have such an extensive book like this…' he mentally noted to himself, keeping an ear out for the sound of a rampaging dragon. 

Filia deposited Valgaav's egg on a high shelf, hopefully out of harm, and tip toed over. He would yell later at her for this, but… she wondered as she watched the waving tail. Nah, it was probably an illusion to bother her, she would test this by… 

The gold dragon reached up and caught it. 'Er, my hand was supposed to go through it' she thought blankly staring at an oddly familiar tail that she couldn't place.

"!!!" Xellos snapped his eyes open, slammed the book shut and teleported across the room. "It's rude to do that Filia." He chirped, rubbing the back of his head, and effectively hiding his sweat-drop. He still had kinks to work out with this. 'Test two, failed.'

Filia blinked dazed pointing,  "You have a tail…"

"…" the mazoku wasn't happy.

"Hey …that's my book!" Filia said shaking off her shock and pointed at it.

"Why so it is." Xellos said hiding the book behind his back, glad for the change of subject.

Filia noted Valgaav's egg was behind her, so it was all right to charge. And so she did. "Hwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!" And, once again she found she had made a Filia-shaped semi hole in the wall being mace-sama less. 'It was gone again!'

"Maybe I should hold onto both of these for a while." The violet haired mazoku chirped holding both of his catches.

Her mace had been away from her a couple of hours today… who knows how long the namagomi would be gone this time, and if he even brought her mace back. She couldn't stand that, she would even ask nicely to the namagomi if she had to! "…please give my mace back."

"Not until you say why your so possessive of it Filia." He couldn't make it that easy for her.

"…" Filia winced; she didn't want to talk about _that_ in front of _him_. "Can't I just have it back?"

"Not until you answer." Xellos said in a sing-song voice.

The gold dragon took a deep breath, "Please?" 

"I repeat, not until you answer."

Filia bit her lip, it looked like she would have to talk… She sat down on the couch. "…alright."

~ ~ ~ (_kono chikara de, kono inochi de, omae wo mamoritai_…) ~ ~ ~

Author Notes: Er, Filia was a bit nostalgic… but most if not all of the next chapter will be… Reviews are welcome. ^ ^ 


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